No luck for SA on day 13

2008-08-21 18:34

Beijing - The Chinese may believe in the luck of numbers, but South African athletes convincingly proved that day 13 is not the number of choice at the Bird's Nest on Thursday.

Athens silver medallist Mbulaeni Mulaudzi was the prime bearer of South Africa's medal hopes going into the Games, but failed to progress past the semi-finals of the 800m.

After a lacklustre performance on Wednesday, the University of Johannesburg athlete, who had been complaining of flu symptoms, simply did not have his usual zip to answer kicks in the home straight.

"I went into this race very positive, but even in the first lap I lacked energy.

"My body was battling to move and when it came to the last 100 I could feel the tension in my body - there was no movement," said Mulaudzi, who went into the first bend ideally positioned on the inside lane closely trailing Brazil's Fabiano Pecanha.

As Kirwa Yego moved into position on the outside, Mulaudzi covered him and followed him into the final bend with the pair looking to have it in the bag down the home straight. But it was not over as Sudan's Ahmed Ismail, and Bahrain's Yusuf Kamel came storming through and Mulaudzi had nothing left to give.

"When it came to the last 30 I could feel I was finished; two guys passed me and then I'm out so I just gave up.

"Today I was feeling much better - my body was not so painful, I thought I would be able to run but I was flat," said the dejected athlete, who on the way through the mixed zone momentarily thought he was into the final.

"I'm in! I'm through!" he exclaimed, glancing at the score screen. "I saw the seven next to me and I thought I had made it as a fastest qualifier."

Unfortunately it was his position in the semi-final and not the list of qualifiers. Yego's winning time of 1:44.73 was the fastest of the night, with Ismail second and pulling both Kamel and Algerian Nadjim Manseur through to qualify.

South Africans were left speculating as to whether Mulaudzi would be in the final had he not slowed over the last 15m when the first two athletes had passed him.

After a rest back in South Africa Mulaudzi will prepare for the Grand Prix final to finish his season for the year.

Rene Kalmer

Rene Kalmer provided a disappointing effort in her 1 500m heat. Her personal and season's best was the third slowest going into the race making it clear that there was nothing to be gained by less than a flat out effort, in what, based on the previous heat times, was bound to be the fastest heat of the night.

To a huge roar China's Qing Liu pulled the field through 400m in one minute 2.71 seconds with Kalmer settling in to tail. On the main straight American Shannon Rowbury took over the lead which was exchanged with Russian Anna Alminova as the pace started to wind up going through 1200 in 3:17.40.

Nancy Langat and Ukraine's Nataliya Tobias stretched the field to the line with the Kenyan taking the honours and setting the fastest time of the night in 4:03.02. Tobias was second with Britain's Lisa Dobriskey third taking over three seconds from her personal best.

The conservative approach allowed Kalmer to pick up the dead and wounded from 300m out passing four athletes to finish seventh in 4:08.41 - fully 1.7 seconds off her best.

"My game plan was to go out with Lisa Dobriskey and just try to stay behind. I think we are similar athletes but I lost a bit of concentration when she kicked and she was gone immediately," said Kalmer, who sees little value in specialising in the track.

"I will definitely not spend more time on the track; I will be going back to road. I'm not a pure 1 500m athlete - I don't have the speed but I've got endurance from the track. I think next year you will see me more on the road again. I've tried it(specialising on track) before after the previous Olympic games when I just missed out on qualifying (for the team) and it didn't work for me."

On this basis Kalmer, who dominated the lucrative Spar Ladies 10km series, may be more suited to the longer distance events or moving to the half marathon.

Robert Oosthuizen

Javelin thrower Robert Oosthuizen failed to make it through the qualifying stages in a rain-soaked morning at the Birds Nest on Thursday morning.

Qualification was expected to be a formality for Oosthuizen who was sixth in last years World Championships in Osaka, but the conditions particularly affected throwing by the first qualification group.

A failed first trial was followed by a disappointing 74.55m in the second round, and a best in the third trial of 76.15, well below his normal standards. Canadian Scott Russell's opening throw of 80.42 was the best of the group and sufficient for him to miss the other attempts, while Oosthuizen finished eleventh ranked in the first group.

"The rain affected everyone's performance. There were no automatic qualifiers. I'm really not too pleased with my performances. I'm not making this an excuse, as I wouldn't have made it an excuse if I had thrown 80m, but I have battled with flu since Monday," said a frank and honest Oosthuizen.

"I wish I could do a lot better, but I will see what happens with the next group"

The second qualifiers were held in better conditions and saw the favourites make lighter work of exceeding the automatic qualification. Vadmis Vasilevskis had an opening throw of 83.51m while Tero Pitkamaki and Tero Jarvenpaa, the two Finnish throwers heavily tipped to be amongst the medals, made the qualification mark with their second trials. Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen qualified below the initially set mark with 79.85 setting the field up for a tightly contested final on Saturday.

The jinx spread

The apparent jinx of day 13 jinx spread to other countries in the relay heats.

In what must be the strangest 4x100 heat of any Olympics since the first relay in 1912 where they held six heats, four with only one country, only four of the original eight starting countries completed the South African heat.

The US combination led into the third changeover, dropping the baton, a trick that was repeated by the Nigerians in the adjacent lane 6, with the South Africans in lane five failing to exchange within the zone, and Poland also failing to finish. Trinidad and Tobago were left virtually unchallenged to the line, with Japan and Netherlands now surprise qualifiers and the Brazilian quartet in fourth.

"We were looking good but we just didn't get the baton through the last changeover," said Ishmael Kumbane."I didn't see anything going on I was just focusing but I think Thuso (Mpuang) moved early, I chased him but couldn't catch him before the line. I don't blame him - we are a team; we work together."

The comedy of errors was almost repeated in the two heats of the women's 4x100 where two more teams dropped batons and a further three of the 16 were disqualified for running out of the changeover zone.

- SAPA